Ablation of blood vessels to interrupt the conduction of nerve signals in the body is known in the art. For example, renal denervation systems have been employed to ablate sympathetic renal nerves, which lie mainly on the adventitia of the renal artery with some nerves lying within the arterial wall itself, to treat hypertension. One such renal denervation system, the EnligHTN™ Multi-Electrode Renal Denervation System by St. Jude Medical Inc., is generally in the form of a catheter with a basket at the tip of the catheter, the basket including electrodes. The electrodes are inserted into a blood vessel, for example the renal artery, contact the inside wall of the blood vessel, and are activated with low-level radiofrequency (“RF”) energy to ablate nerves in the blood vessel. The applied energy results in an increased temperature in the tissue and forms lesions in the wall of the blood vessel, interrupting conduction pathways that traverse the lesions.
It would be desirable to have an experimental model to provide verification of RF ablation systems in a simulated biological environment prior to any preclinical and clinical studies. The experimental simulation of RF ablation can predict achievable ablation lesions, patterns, and penetration depth, thus providing useful information for treatment planning and device performance.